Chapter 4: Planet Red

He was a demon after all. Even without his invincible powers, it will be unpleasant, but the atmosphere and heat shouldn't hurt him all that much. He believed he's been in worse and hotter places in the underworld before. He would only need a few seconds anyway to sense the whereabouts of the Avestan texts, they would have a powerful pulling to them for the evil ear. He stood on the surface of the planet in a dirt storm, not seeing a thing as he listened out for the call. As he couldn't sense anything, he shimmered around a few times, then concluded that the book would either not be there or he wasn't evil enough to find it. Ironic that, these are the times when Phoebe left him, when he wasn't evil enough to find a damned book. He should shimmer back to accept his fate, but he found himself unable to as the heat started to choke him. He didn't make a second attempt, he didn't even try to get up from the surface after he fell down. It was the easy solution he was looking for. He considered Phoebe's safety for a second. But she would be fine, charmed again, he decided before he let darkness take over…

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"We should summon him here for the vanquish," Phoebe suggested, "I don't fancy bumping into any guards at the manor," more so because she thought of how would Piper react if she found out she slept with so many of them, rather then because she was fearing for their own safety or because she was shell shocked by Paige's story and the reinstatement of the power of three. After all, no matter what anybody said, her reality was made out of her emotions deriving from what has happened in this one, she had to shield herself from the consequences of her pleasure seeking actions.

"Works for me," Piper agreed and started chanting the well oiled spell, "magic forces black and white
Reaching out through space and light.
Be he far or be he near
Bring us the demon Belthazor here."

The heat blast made them all duck behind the counter of the ex night club, and when they peeked out they saw Cole with his eyes closed, motionless on the ground.

"It's a trick. Let's throw the potion," Paige suggested.

"No, it's not a trick," Phoebe approached him as he coughed weekly, sweat staining all his clothes.

"Well, does it matter? Good for us," Piper cornered the counter just as the Seer materialised in front of her.

"Told you to throw the potion!" Paige fumed, "she's gonna rescue him."

"I will do no such thing," the oracle answered, "I just followed to make sure he is going to be killed. I would order to get him assassinated myself, but as you are so kind to do my job for me I don't have to. He's yours."

"Why would you do that?" Piper argued.

"Because giving him the assignemnt to bring back the Avestan texts was a test. I knew there was something going on today. He couldn't bring us the book, cause he has given in to the pull of good again. But I know that will not bother you while vanquishing him for his deeds, so please, go ahead," she disappeared.

Phoebe stooped down next to her husband, touching his shoulders, "Cole? What's wrong?"

"What are you doing? Come on Phoebe, don't tell me you resist us killing him again?" Paige was apprehensive.

"Again? I did this is the other world, right? It is better for us there then. Leo, could you orb me and Cole to the mausoleum? Maybe we could hide there before the seer figures he is not dead."

"Phoebe, are you sure about this? We have the chance to…"

"I don't know you Paige, so you can't convince me like that. I'm not your Phoebe, whoever that is, although I'm getting more and more convinced to try to find that out. He's not evil. Did you not hear the Seer say that? I won't let you harm him. Leo?"

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The sensation of the coolness of the mausoleum surrounding him and stinging his still boiling skin after the Venus trip made his way into Cole's brain, and the gentle voice that called him persuaded him back to full consciousness. He was distantly aware of the throbbing centred in his chest from the hot atmosphere that still incapacitated his lungs that also encompassed his head the more awake he became.

He wanted to avoid that and fall back to sleep, but Phoebe's soft voice continued to urge him, "Cole. Wake up. We don't have time."

All he could manage was a slur that even he couldn't even understand, but he opened his eyes nevertheless to face a nervous looking Phoebe that he didn't understand why she helped him and how.

"How you feeling?" she asked.

He swallowed, wishing he had something cold to drink, "better. . .I think…what are we doing here?"

"Tell me one thing. In your reality, you didn't kill people, right?"

"Well, I'll be honest with you. Only after you left me."

"In that case, we just have to make sure I don't leave you, don't we? It sounds better there, than here. Are you strong enough to take me there?"

"I'll try…" He cleared his throat and stood up, leaning on Phoebe's arm with one hand, not only for support, but also so he has skin contact with her when times changed back and this Phoebe, his wife, the one that decided to try to find out for herself what better world he could offer her, would not transform into the Phoebe in the other world, but would remain with him. He raised one arm to strengthen the effects of the spell. Although in this reality he was not one of them, the avatars requested that he should reverse what he had done, thus, he assumed he should be able to. The knowledge of what spell to recite was inside his head too, another proof that at some level, he must've have possessed at least some Avatar wisdom, if not powers. Latin words rolled out of his mouth in chanting style as if it was his mother tongue and not the underworld' upper level Fluiff dialect, "magna…tempus…edax rerum…abire tibi est…"

The winds picked up immediately, turning the world around them with sickening velocity and Phoebe hang onto Cole's upper body for support. Closing their eyes to avoid the dizziness, the world literally chased to exist around them, leaving them nothing but each other's flesh for comfort. This was the close embrace they arrived back to the manor's living room…

tbc